Transcriber: 子芸 丁 Reviewer: Ellen Maloney
How many of you here have not complained about traffic?
Not complained about traffic. That's two hands. Very less, right.
There's hardly a day when we literally don't complain about traffic,
probably even today, let me just share one small instance.
In 2018, I was on my way to school on a BMTC bus.
And there’s this place that’s jammed almost every day.
Everybody wanted to go to their destination in a rush.
There's a total chaos there.
That 15-year-old me hopped off into action and successfully cleared the gridlock
Because of it, someone reached their workspace
by at least ten minutes earlier than they would have.
In a developing country like India,
there is seldom a day when people don’t face problems.
Even today, while coming on this road, I probably would have said, right?
Potholes, traffic, garbage.
As the nation with the largest number of youngsters,
it is imperative for the youth to take up a fair share of their responsibilities
and tackle these problems.
But what we see on a day to day basis is rather this lack of thought,
initiative or understanding towards our responsibility towards a better society.
The other day when I was there, I had a choice, right?
I could have just sat there, complained about traffic like the rest of them did.
But what I instead chose to do was initiate action.
Now, any problem you take is outrightly met with these two questions.
I am not responsible for this problem: Why should I bother?
Or probably even if I do take up responsibility.
I am Dhruv Koundinya, again,
currently studying at BMS College of Engineering. Basavanagudi,
and I’m here to share my story and how it is an antithesis
to these two questions that were shared.
I would like to expound upon the activities that I have participated,
volunteered or initiated in these things
Now, there was a time when seasons were properly defined in in Bangalore,
for that matter, if you see it’s raining in almost every month, barring a few.
And we casually mock at Bangalore’s weather.
It is sunny in the morning,
suddenly rains in the afternoon and becomes very cold by night.
But well, climate change is indeed real. Global warming is also on the rise.
But question yourself what is it that we are doing in our everyday lives
to help mitigate this?
Some simple steps. What am I doing to reduce this?
We read a lot of articles right? About environment, climate change, etc.
We participate in debate competitions, we write, we do paintings,
a lot of things.
But what is it that we are really doing?
And also the first thing that you would picture yourself in the mind
when I say, “climate change”
is you would you would paint plastic to be the villain of the story
I mean, well, it is, there are multiple reasons why it should be.
Well, here is obviously one reason why it definitely should be featured as
the villain of the story.
Do we really need all this plastic packaging?
They pack fresh vegetables with plastic to keep them fresh.
There is far [so] much of this plastic usage today.
You know, all of them end up in garbage like this.
Now, there’s a time
when I used to Google for these photos for my project reports in school,
but probably in my gallery, I have more pictures of them than myself.
So anyway, according to BBMP records, you wouldn’t believe,
but I have the data to support,
close to 5,000 - 6,000 metric tons of waste is generated
from the city every day.
And plastic is a major contributor. In specific, single use plastic.
Now this convenience of use and throw has become so established.
It’s very difficult to change this.
Any small parties, functions, or weddings that you see,
they make use of single use cutlery.
Nobody thinks of the amount of waste they generate out of this event.
They leave it to the caterers, right?
You would ask, what’s the solution?
And it’s already repeated around four times through morning.
I’m a proud beneficiary too.
During the recent celebrations at our home,
we organize dolls and we call a lot of people home.
Definitely you all next year, too.
We served food to more than 500 people in only steel cutlery,
in steel spoons and steel plates, all of which were borrowed from
an organization - [inaudible] - they have around 10 thousand plates.
We just brought them back to our house wash, used, wash and return.
We did save a lot of waste that could have been generated.
Now, I believe, you know,
this whole perception of how people see waste has to change.
It has to change from BBMP’s responsibility, BBMP, which is Bangalore,
which is our municipal corporation,
to my responsibility: my waste is my responsibility.
Now I leap from the celebrations at our house
in conversation with the junior health inspector of Basavanagudi.
We found that in 2021, nearly four tonnes of waste was lifted from just this event.
Earlier this year, I joined this wonderful team at
College Institute Social Responsibility Cell.
A group of like-minded people determined to work for a cause.
And the fact that this happens right in front of our college made it even more
important for us to help reduce this plastic waste.
We started off by making an awareness video requesting people to get their own
bags to the fair.
We said, “ಜಾತ್ರೆಗೆ ಬನ್ನಿ” which means come to the fair,
get your own bag when you come to the fair.
We don't have a practice of carrying our bags even to shops, right?
This 15-minute usage of plastic cover or a cover that we buy has
the consequence of a lifetime.
So we started off by requesting people to get their own bags to the fair,
and then in order to provide alternatives to plastics that were already banned
by BBMP since 2018,
and these paper covers that could hold a max of one - two litres of groundnuts.
We thought of making cloth bags, not from fresh piece of cloth
but from old clothes in clean condition.
So this thing is called Cheela Mela.
In a week before [inaudible]
we collected clothes from close to 21 different apartment associations
on [inaudible] road,
all of which were stitched into beautiful cloth bags
in just a single week by tailors.
And with the amount of bags we collected,
we made close to 5000 of them, all of which was distributed to the vendors.
(Applause)
Thank you.
So that was the pictures you can show.
Anyway.
So out of this, after doing all of this, we thought, you know.
Is 5000, a small number as compared to 2.2 lakh (hundred thousand) people?
I mean, definitely you would relate and say it’s a small number,
but not only did we do this as a part of distributing these bags or something,
but every person we came through, while doing this has the seed planted in them.
We succeeded in sensitizing this problem.
It was certainly a defining moment in my life when this was appreciated by
the honorable Chief Minister of Karnataka.
Pollution and the harsh shift of plastic is known to many.
But I really doubt if you've ever wondered about what happens to
the millions of textbooks that go to waste every academic semester or term.
They get printed. They become like single-use cutlery.
Now you use it for your semester and discard it after its use,
and neither can your juniors make use of these books.
It's a good thing that they're going to recycle shops, but again,
the whole process has to repeat papermaking.
You know, to make one ton of paper,
It takes three tons of trees
and also leads to a lot of water and air pollution.
So in 2021, just as we were unlocking from the COVID 19 lockdown,
there was this message that was posted on our neighborhood group saying
I wanted to give all the reference materials for free.
And I went, I got a library full of books.
Initially, my parents were like, “I could have bought them for you.”
But after my examinations,
my goal was to make sure these books will reach some student
and will not end up in shops that will either recycle or repurpose this.
Because also all these books are extremely resourceful at the same time,
very exorbitant and expensive to a lot of students.
Many students will not be able to purchase these books.
So we started off after my examinations, we collected a few books from my friends.
Soon this resonated, like-minded people pulled in.
In 2021, we collected close to 2500 of them,
and in 2022 we collected 3000 books,
all of which was donated to a government college in our district,
a place where access to such materials was, you know, a dream.
Resources worth close to four lakh rupees was a dream.
Now they promised to recycle these books every year.
My message from this is, unless and until it’s very, very necessary,
do not purchase new books. Try to borrow books from your seniors. Use them.
Give it to your juniors.
Now Bangalore has a very vibrant network of all these citizens who are making
difference every day, and I'm proud to be just one among them.
And if you have observed there is more of we than I throughout the talk.
All of this change has not happened because of one person or one company.
It's because of champions who have believed in collective action
and finding solutions to local problems.
All these ideas like book collection drive or the complex ideas.
We dedicated our some amount of our brain thinking to this space
and we found solutions. We executed it.
The only thing that continues to inspire me even today is that my efforts matter
and it will make a difference. Right?
Each of us must start making climate conscious decisions in our lives,
everyday lives. Many of us are still unaware or in denial of our future.
There is this mindset that is plaguing most Bengalureans:
can’t see, won’t hurt, which is very dangerous.
That has to change. Thank you.
(Applause)